The bad news? GOP’s same Spineless Leaders

So you think the fact that Republicans now control both houses of Congress there will be a rollback of Obama’s unpopular policies? Guess again.

If you hit the snooze button for another two years, there will be a lot of whining and gnashing of teeth, but nothing important will get done. Obamacare will still be the law of the land. We will still be spending more than we take in and our immigration laws will still be a joke.

But wait a minute. Isn’t this why the electorate gave the Republicans control of Congress? What about the millions that were spent on the ads Repubican candidates were running touting these very things? Aren’t these the very issues this election was supposed to be all about?

Yes, but the GOP still has it same old wimpy leaders: McConnell in the Senate and Boehner in the House. Both have been out on the campaign trail, with the former fighting for his political life. Nevertheless, both have avoided making any direct promises, promises that were implied in the plethora of Republican ads.

If you will remember, Boehner raised the white flag of surrender shorting after taking the speaker’s gavel in 2010, complaining, “We control only 1/2 of 1/3 of the government. Boohoo! Sob, sob!” Now that little 1/3 just happened to be the most important piece of the government because, by law, every spending bill has to originate in the House. Nevertheless, the Boehner brigade went right on spending and spending and spending. Why they even funded a stopgap measure in September, call a Continuing Resolution, to keep the government running until after the election, which contained no cubs on anything — even funds that illegally pay for abortions under Obamacare.

The new whine from Boehner will be, “We control only 1/3 of the government. Boohoo! Sob, sob!”

As for McConnell, you can’t pin this career politician down on anything. In fact, the closer he got to the election, the more wiggle room he created between himself and his promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. McConnell’s excuse, “We won’t have 60 votes (which are necessary to bring a bill to a vote on the floor of the Senate).

Did Harry Reid have a 60 vote majority when Obamacare was passed? For only a brief moment in time. If you will remember, shortly after the initial vote, Scott Brown was elected to fill the Senate seat in Massachusetts vacated by the death of Ted Kennedy (largely on his promise to vote against the ACA). Democrat leadership then decided to bring up the Senate version of the bill (worst of the two measures) in the House so it wouldn’t have to go to a conference committee and come back to the floor of both houses of Congress for final passage. Nevertheless when the Senate version came up for a vote in the House, 34 Democrats were persuaded to vote against this unpopular measure.

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t the polls show that the overwhelming majority of the public want this thing repealed? Now correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t most Democrat senators spend their run-up to the election trying to distance themselves from this unpopular president and his signature achievement, which was rammed down our throats without a single vote from a Republican?

If this is the case, wouldn’t you think that any leader worth his salt could pick off enough Senate Democrats to, at the very least, allow a bill to repeal Obamacare to come up for a vote?

It’s true that the president, though unpopular, still has a bully pulpit and can go in front of a national television audience to rail against those “mean old Republicans” any time he wants. However, now that Republicans control Congress, they have a bully pulpit of their own, should they chose to use it.

The problem is Boehner is a poor spokesman and McConnell is even worse.

Both are spineless. Furthermore, they lack energy and passion, two qualities you must have to sell anything, much less go up against a sitting president.

While this election was important, the elections for party leadership in the House and Senate are even more important.

The people you just elected need to hear from you on this and every other matter.

Unfortunately, most people will simply hit the snooze button. When they wake up in 2016, they will wonder what happened?

This is the time for Republicans to work as though the fate of the country — and our ability to control our own fate and a fair portion of our income — depends on it, because it does.

5 thoughts on “The bad news? GOP’s same Spineless Leaders”

I’m afraid that, as usual, Ms. Chastain has nailed it. America (or what little is left of it) desperately needs a party that offers a real alternative to the Demoncraps…but the Republicans, under their present spineless and unprincipled leadership, are not that party. The monster in the White House should have been impeached long ago, and would have been…save that honor and courage are almost nonexistent in the District of Criminals.
We did not vote the Republicans into office because we love, respect, or trust them, but because we harbor a deadly hatred for the Obaminable Hussein and its cronies. We are sick unto death of the fascist left with their lies and hypocrisy and their steady and deliberate destruction of our nation.
The Republicans can expect a very, very short honeymoon.

Jane, girl, you are right on it. You are the only columnist who knows that our problems will not be solved until the spineless leaders of the Republican party are removed, because they are the problem. And that goes for the Republican Party chairman also. Rinsey Prebus (spelling intentional) must also go. And most of all Carl Rove and all the Republicans who ran for office and lost should be retired. Absent this, Tuesday’s win will be squandered. Humphrey

In 1994, Newt had a list, the Contract with America, in which were listed several goals that were pursued. The current leadership-office-holders (NOTE: I purposely didn’t say “leaders”) have no published plan and no leadership qualities. I’m with Ted Cruz who has withheld his support for McConnell. We need a Ted Cruz and Mike Lee as our leaders. Let us hope they have the influence to light a fire under McConnell and let him feel the heat. Maybe that fire will be the energy needed to return our country to the main track and away from the terminal (as in death) detour we have been on.

Please, everyone, pressure the Republicans in the House & Senate from now until January to elect Trey Gowdy & Ted Cruz as House Speaker & Senate Majority Leader respectively. No more Boehner & McConnell. Thank you.